Panelmate vs. Panelview

Newbie question here:

What are the main differences between PanelMate & Panelview systems ?

Who supplies PanelMates ?

Panel Mate I believe is the Modicon HMI

EDIT 1
Just googled and seen Cutler Hammer


EDIT 2
Just googled panelmate modicon and that's there too.



Maybe its been bought and sold a few times

PanelView is an Allen Bradley product. PanelMate is a Cutler Hammer product. For several years PanelMate made a clone branded as Modicon. The PanelMate product was originally developed by a company called IDT and bought by Cutler Hammer shortly after a deal between IDT and Allen Bradley fell through. That may explain the similarity in names.

karivelm said:

Newbie question here:

What are the main differences between PanelMate & Panelview systems ?

Who supplies PanelMates ?

Click to expand...

One major difference between the two is speed.
The panelmate is sssssssslllllllllllllowwwwwwwwwww, may be different now.

One major difference between the two is speed.
The panelmate is sssssssslllllllllllllowwwwwwwwwww

Click to expand...

I can't let that go unchallenged. There are too many factors involved in determining how quickly an HMI panel updates to make a blanket claim that one brand is faster or slower than another.

The new paanelmates are actually pretty cool. They are basically mini PCs with XP embedded on flash 'hard' drives. In addition to being an HMI, they can also be used for web browsing, games, etc etc. The version I've been using have been capable of running the old software as well as the new (which I haven't tried). The old software is weird and clunky, but it works and you do get used to it after a bit.

In another life, I was a software tester for panelbuilder32, and my overall impression at the time was 'meh'. Panelviews work well enough I guess, just a different set of weirdnesses to get used to. I quite like the panelview plus, but have rather limited exposure to them, and they are quite pricey, I understand.

I have used both Panelview and Panelmate. The panelviews are expensive and not very graphically oriented and Panelbuilder32 is not very good software. I am replacing every one in our plant as soon as time and money allow... This is all just my opinion, of course.



The Panelmates are pretty nice. I have used the 1100, 1500 and 1700 series. You can do a lot with them and they are pretty good with graphics, but the screen updates are relatively slow. Another thing is that you can do logic in the OIT, which I hate because it confuses people. You need to have the OIT software to see the logic in order to troubleshoot on the floor. They are also rather expensive and I don't like the external program transfer utility (VP Transfer?). I haven't used them since 2003, so this may have changed.



Look into the Red Lion G3 OIT's if you have time. They are easy to program with Crimson, the connectivity is great and they are very rich with graphics... The price is not too bad, either. We have switched to the Red Lion completely on every new OIT in the plant and don't regret it at all.

Best regards

Steve Bailey said:

I can't let that go unchallenged. There are too many factors involved in determining how quickly an HMI panel updates to make a blanket claim that one brand is faster or slower than another.

Click to expand...

As I stated, I don't know how they are now, but I know the Panelmates from around 2000 were much slower than a PV. We have one client where PVs and Panelmates are installed via DH+ and the PVs knock the socks off the Panelmates for screen update times

KP_EENG said:

I have used both Panelview and Panelmate. The panelviews are expensive and not very graphically oriented and Panelbuilder32 is not very good software. I am replacing every one in our plant as soon as time and money allow... This is all just my opinion, of course.

Click to expand...

And panelmates are cheap and graphically oriented??? NO WAY!!!

IMO PVs are MUCH better for graphics. Panelmates graphics is a cludgey mess that, though it works, is not very easy to work with.

In our plants, we're having many, many more problems with PanelMate failures than PanelViews.

So, back to the OP's question: They're basically the same (at least in the older models... We haven't discussed the PV Plus here yet...) So, it comes down to a question of preference and installed base.

Given the choice, I'll NEVER install another PanelMate.

Ozee,

I think that you have misunderstood my post. I am saying that Panelmates are better than panelviews at graphics and they are only slightly cheaper that panelviews. I don't use either now, only Red Lion and Maple Systems if I need something really inexpensive. Panelviews and Panelmates are over-priced and not nearly as capable as the Red Lion G3 series.

The panelview plus is better, but doesn't it use RSView ME or something like that? Way too complicated for most simple applications and still too expensive. I can get a Red Lion G308 for about $1700.00.

Best regards

Hmmm.

I must weigh in now, too.

My experience with PanelMates was that they were far superior to the oringal panelviews for graphic representations, scaling and communication flexibility, and most certainly reliability.

Their DH+ drivers were smartly done, making them almost impervious to stuck button syndrome, and you did not have to stock a whole 'nuther device to use a different protocol. (fewer spares) The piggy back comm card, much like a KT card, would do DH+ or RIO, in addition to the 2 serial ports that were fully configurable.

I once used one page as a terminal window and it would display the ascii output of port A on an old Max Control Servo controller.

Yes, you can master the Panlemate in minutes with a few good examples. You can do wrap-around or clamped input value limiting with no PLC code.

You can use expressions to build scaling, create boolean expressions to animate graphics, and just about any math funcion you would expect on your scinetific calculator is availible including binary hex ascii, and trig functions.

This is probably the most important feature that made them so darn flexible. There was really no need to write PLC code to do all sorts of complex limit checking, scaling and data management. Our tire machines literally had less than a dozen lines of code to handle setting drum widths. They were very efficient because of the availibily of complex expressions in most any field where a tag can go.

PanelMate Power Series and Pro from 1200 through the 3000 are a very solid invest of your HMI dollars. They won't lie to you and tie you up for days researching technotes and applying patches either.

The most impressive thing for me was ease of use, solid, clean firmware, drivers, and programming software.

You know the code is cleaner whn you can download a 16 page HMI app in 25 seconds at 38.4k. Try that wth a Panelview.

I have never ever, no matter what succeeded in using a Panelview without adding ladder logic. Any panelbuilder32 application that does much of anything will lie to you unless you write ladder logic to force the truth out of it. That is my biggest complaint about the a/b offering, and my defense of the CH units.

I was so much more productive with them, they were intuitive to use with the touchpanels, and side buttons. The keyswitch feature and simple alarming and password schemes were very useful too.

Our failures with them were only with non coated ciruits and ususlly resulted in lines in hte graphics or watchdog faults.

Those with conformal coating never gave much trouble at all in our high-sulphur atmosphere.

[/soapbox]
PiEaCe